Browns reportedly shared domed stadium proposal to state officials

Team officials showed what a domed stadium and entertainment district in Brook Park might look like.

The 2024 NFL Draft is in the books and the Cleveland Browns will now turn their attention to incorporating this year’s rookie class and continuing the offseason program for the veterans.

While the players and coaches get to work on preparing for the regular season, owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam continue to work on plans for where the team will be playing when its current lease at Cleveland Browns Stadium expires in 2028.

So far, the Haslams have:

• Kicked around the idea of buying 176 acres of land in the Cleveland suburb of Brook Park as a potential site for a domed stadium
• Reportedly pitched Cleveland City Council on a renovation plan for the current stadium that would need $500 million in public funding
• Seen Cleveland City Councilman Brian Kazy introduce legislation requiring the team to follow the state’s so-called Modell Law
• Stated they are open to either renovating the current stadium or building a dome, depending on which option makes the most sense

The latest move by team officials was to meet with a bipartisan group of state lawmakers last week to show off their proposal for a domed stadium in Brook Park, according to Signal Cleveland.

Details are still a bit light, but that may be changing soon as the team is expected to start sharing the latest plan in the “near future,” according to the article:

So what do the Brook Park plans look like? The public may find out soon. The team is expected to start circulating the plans more widely in the near future, sources told Signal Cleveland. Drawings shown to lawmakers depicted a multipurpose stadium that appeared built deep into the ground and with room for development around it, people knowledgeable about the pitch said.

The project was sold as an unprecedented economic development effort that includes a domed stadium and entertainment and lifestyle district that would be mostly privately funded – but would likely cost taxpayers significantly, too. The public portion of the stadium was pitched as drawing on revenue generated by the project. (The renovation of Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, for instance, relied in part on admission and sales tax from the arena.)

The Haslams have previously talked about renovations to the current stadium costing around $1 billion.

While no costs have been tied to building a domed stadium, the Tennessee Titans are building a domed stadium in Nashville that is projected to cost $2.1 billion. The Buffalo Bills are building an open-air stadium that initially was going to cost $1.4 billion but had already seen $300 million in cost overruns, pushing it to $1.7 billion. And the Chicago Bears last week announced plans for a new stadium that will cost $3.2 billion, with another $1.5 billion earmarked for infrastructure improvements.

It is important to remember that this is just the beginning of what will be a long process as the Haslams work with local and state officials to figure out how to get what they want, and what a public/private funding plan would look like to pay for all of it.